eWEEK Editorial Board

Who runs the Internet? Theres no simple answer to that question. The Web is a collective enterprise, but several players have key roles. One of those players is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, which is responsible for IP address space allocation and other important technical ground rules by which the […]

Should businesses and consumers be able to expect ISPs and businesses they deal with not to snoop into their communications and Internet use? Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston answered no by affirming an earlier ruling dismissing charges against an executive whose company provided e-mail services to book dealers. The executive […]

Imagine being able to stop most spam, viruses and fraudulent e-mail messages—and easily detecting those few that get through. How much would you pay and how much work would you be willing to put in to achieve that? Most of us would welcome a solution that could get those results at any price—and we would […]

We have condemned in this space the poor balance between benefit and harm struck by the grandiosely named and poorly conceived Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. As we observed at the end of last year, the acts broad anti-circumvention clause—Section 1201—has become a multiedged tool that corporations are invoking to kill competition. We therefore […]

With companies facing increasingly fierce pressures to meet shareholder and Wall Street demands for earnings growth, offshore outsourcing to cut costs has become more than an attractive option. It has become a fact of IT life. While outsourcing best practices for help desk work and application development are well-understood, best practices for database administration outsourcing […]

Web services represent the third attempt to rebuild enterprise IT on the standards-based foundation conceived by Tim Berners-Lee. To realize that vision, vendors and IT pros must resist some familiar temptations and avoid some traditional mistakes. The first Web was a tool of research, and it has succeeded beyond all expectations in putting facts at […]

We could hear the whistling in advance, and, indeed, the decision by Sun to license the source code for its flagship Solaris operating system was a bombshell. Now, after the impact, the speculation really begins as the Sun and open-source communities await clarification of just what Sun intends to do. There are many unanswered questions: […]

At the recent Tech Ed show in San Diego, Microsoft executives made many announcements about the future directions and key features of their products. In a keynote speech, Andy Lees, corporate vice president in charge of server and tools marketing, discussed a plan to increase integration and ease of management across all of Microsofts server […]

A draft letter posted to P2P Web sites and purportedly written by california Attorney General Bill Lockyer and circulated to other state attorneys general demands P2P software companies do a better job of protecting consumers from the dangers of file sharing or face legal action. In listing the numerous potential hazards associated with P2P, the […]

We all have come to take for granted the power, value and ease of Internet search. When we force ourselves to imagine anything other than free, comprehensive and unbiased access to relevant rankings of the Webs expanding resources, the prospect is unappealing. It may be unrealistic, though, to think that the present idyllic situation can […]

As corporations race to meet a June deadline for compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, its clear that the devil—and the opportunity—is in the details. The act, officially known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002, was signed into law in 2002 to restore the publics confidence in corporate […]

On the surface, the Bush administrations proposed fiscal year 2005 budget looks as if it gives technology investment its due. But a closer look leaves us scratching our heads. Unless you carry a gun or a badge, you wont find much to celebrate in the presidents plan. Bushs $132 billion in research and development spending […]